Hello everyone!

We’re back for this week’s installment of the Stellaris Dev Diary. This week we will covering a mix of paid and free features. More exactly, we’ll be talking about the Slave Market, Unity Ambitions and new Mandates. I bet I know which one you’ll want to read about first, so let’s start with that one.

Before we start I need to reiterate that this dev diary contains things that are WIP, with non-final numbers, interfaces or mechanics that might change.

The Slave Market (PAID)
To better facilitate different playstyles, we’ve added the Slave Market feature to MegaCorp. This will allow more easy transfer of slaves between empires. In MegaCorp, nothing can stand in the way of the pursuit of profit.

Access to the Slave Market is granted once the Galactic Market is founded. Only empires that also have access to the Galactic Market will be able to use the Slave Market. Only Pops that are currently Slaves are able to be sold on the Slave Market, but anyone can buy them (either to set them free or to put them to work).



To sell a slave you select one or more Pop(s) on a planet (it must be enslaved). Right now the interface shows planets as the drop-down, but we will be changing it so that you first select a species, and then the list shows the different planets. We’re tweaking the interface right now, so some things might look a bit different as the next couple of weeks pass.



When you have decided which slaves to sell, they will be put on the market. The price of slaves is 500 ± the cost affected by traits. The traits that make them good slaves drives the price up, while things that make them bad slaves drives the price down. Many traits will not affect the cost of a slave.



To buy a slave, you select a destination planet and then simply click the buy button. This will complete the transaction and move the pop to your selected planet.

We are considering adding a simple bidding process as an additional step, but at this time we cannot promise that we will have time to add it before the release of MegaCorp.

Unity Ambitions (FREE)
We are now making this feature a free feature because we felt it works better that way. We want to make sure that Unity is always useful.

Mandates (FREE)
We have reworked and added a bunch of new mandates for democratic empires. They usually go along the lines of building more districts, building more stations to gather resource, to increasing monthly income etc.



That is what we have for this week. Next week we’ll return with a Dev Diary about what the community can expect in terms of Modding capabilities.



Don’t forget to tune into Twitch for the Dev Clash at 15:00 CET on https://www.twitch.tv/paradoxinteractive, starting with a special video showcase, so you can see us whack at each other with our new pointy sticks!

Hello everyone!

Today we’re back for this week’s installment of the Stellaris Dev Diary!

Now for the standard reminder that we’re not yet ready to reveal when MegaCorp will be released, and that screenshots may contain placeholder art, interfaces and non-final numbers. That said, you’re now free to begin the honored tradition of ignoring that and start arguing about any numbers posted or asking for a release date.

Anyway, let’s begin! Today we will be covering The Caravaneers, another cool feature in MegaCorp.

The Basics
The Caravaneers are space-based traders who send out fleets across the galaxy to offers you great deals! The best deals! There are three different Caravaneer fleets who set out from their coalition base in Chor’s Compass.




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The Fleets
Like mentioned earlier, there are three new fleets of traders roving the galaxy, known as Racket Industrial Enterprise, the Numistic Order, and the Vengralian Trium.






They travel across the galaxy, and when they show up in your space they will offer you lucrative deals. Each fleet has their own set of specialized deals and may ask for different things in return for what they are offering.
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The Caravaneer Coalition Base
For those who seek to enjoy some quality pastime, a visit to the caravaneer base is surely worth a visit! The caravaneers have some great deals on offer – only Energy Credits are accepted for being exchanged for the exciting CaravanCoinz! (Your primitive £, $, € won't be accepted here!)

CaravanCoinz allows you partake in some excellent games of chance, or to buy sealed boxes of loot. Who knows, maybe you will be lucky enough to find the most glorious and precious thing known in the galaxy – The Galatron.

Either way, a visit to the caravansary coalition base is not something you’ll regret!

Wow, so many great deals to look forwards to!




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That is it for this week, folks! Next week we will be back with another exciting topic - namely the Slave Market (and some additional minor stuff)!



Also don't forget to tune into Twitch at 15:00 CET for the third session of the Stellaris Dev Clash.
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Hello everyone!

On this stellar day you will be able to read another of our dev diaries about the upcoming expansion - MegaCorp.

Like always I have to mention that we’re not yet ready to reveal when MegaCorp is due to being released, and that this article may contain placeholder art, interfaces and non-final numbers.

For this dev diary we will be exploring some of the new cool features in the MegaCorp expansion – namely Ecumenopolises and new Megastructures.

Ecumenopolis
“Thus shall we make a world of the city, and a city of the world”.


The city planet is here. To create a Ecumenopolis, you first need to unlock the associated Ascension Perk. The ascension perk is only available for non-gestalt empires, and requires the new Anti-Gravity Engineering technology.



Once you have the ascension perk, a decision will appear on your colonized planets. To be able to enact the decision, you need your planet to be entirely filled with only City Districts, in addition to the cost.


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Ecumenolopises replace the regular districts with special districts available only to the ecumenopolis. These districts are Residential Arcology, Foundry Arcology, Industrial Arcology and Leisure Arcology. These districts are more powerful and provide a lot more jobs than regular districts. Additionally, Ecumenopolisis provide a bonus to pop growth and resource production for all jobs on the planet.






The Arcology Project is a must for anyone wishing to build a truly "tall" planet.

Megastructures
MegaCorp is releasing with 4 new Megastructures:

• Matter Decompressor
  
• Strategic Coordination Center
  
• Mega Art Installation
  
• Interstellar Assembly

These new megastructures will be unlocked by the Galactic Wonders Ascension Perk.


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Megastructures have also received a balance pass to fit the new economy, and thus they now cost alloys to build instead of minerals.
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Matter Decompressor


The Matter Decompressor works similar to the dyson sphere, but using technology far too complex to try to explain here, it extracts minerals instead of energy. It has 4 levels which provide:
Minerals: 250/500/750/1000

Strategic Coordination Center


The armored hull of the Strategic Coordination Center houses the cream of our military command, who devote their time to strategy and planning in this state-of-the-art facility. It has 3 levels and provide the following effects:
Naval Capacity: 75/150/225
Starbase Capacity: 5/10/15
Defense Platforms: 8/16/24
Sublight Speed: 5%/10%/15%

Mega Art Installation


An artistic beacon on a stellar scale, this installation inspires and represents the spirit of its creators. The Mega Art Installation also has 3 levels, but with the following effects:
Unity: 100/200/300
Amenities: 5%/10%/15%

Interstellar Assembly


A meeting place for galactic powers, increasing immigration attraction and global opinion of us. The Interstellar Assembly has 4 levels with the following effects:
Immigration Pull: 25%/50%/75%/100%
Other empire's opinion: 10/20/30/50

Every Thursday at 15:00 CET, tune into the Stellaris Dev Clash!

We're kicking off Week 2 of the Dev Clash right now, with our developers taking on the roles of their very own empires. Come and follow the narrative and get an exclusive look on the lastest MegaCorp internal build.

Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/paradoxinteractive
Mixer: https://mixer.com/paradoxinteractive

Hello everyone and welcome to another Stellaris development diary. Today marks the first dev diary about MegaCorp, the major expansion accompanying the 2.2 'Le Guin update', and the topic is the titular feature of MegaCorp: MegaCorporations. As said before, screenshots will contain placeholder art, prototype interfaces and non-final numbers.

MegaCorporations
A MegaCorporation is a type of empire that uses the new 'Corporate' authority added in MegaCorp. It is an interstellar empire that is structured like a business, and is focused on trade, building tall and generating large amounts of Energy Credits. Unlike the other two new authorities added in Utopia and Synthetic Dawn, the Corporate authority does not have a special ethic, but rather can support any combination of the regular empire ethics - you can play your MegaCorp as an authoritarian spiritualist corporation with indentured workers, or an egalitarian co-op that looks after the welfare of its citizens. Regardless of your ethics though, the Corporate authority has the Oligarchic election format, with a new leader elected every 20 years from a pre-selected pool of candidates.


The Corporate authority comes with its own special set of civics and a number of advantages and drawbacks. MegaCorps get a higher administrative cap (how large your empire can grow without suffering penalties such as tech and unity cost increases), but take double the penalty that normal empires do from being above said cap. This means that MegaCorps are ill-suited to controlling large swathes of space directly, and should focus on claiming fewer, better quality systems and planets. MegaCorps also have special variants of the Administrator and Culture Worker jobs called 'Executive' and 'Manager' respectively, that both produce trade value in addition to their other effects.



The Corporate authority fully replaces the old 'Corporate Dominion' civic for those who have the MegaCorp expansion, but Corporate Dominion is still available as a civic pick if you do not have MegaCorp.

Branch Offices
To compensate for their deficiencies when it comes to controlling territory directly, MegaCorps have the ability to construct Branch Offices on the planets of other empires. A Branch Office is a separate part of the planet screen that is managed by the controlling MegaCorp, where said MegaCorp can construct special Corporate Buildings. Branch Offices can normally only be established on the planets of regular (non-Gestalt, non-Corporate) empires that the MegaCorp has signed a Commercial Pact with. Commercial Pacts are trade agreements signed between two non-Gestalt empires that allow each empire to gain income relative to the size of the other empires' collected trade value, and is a part of the free Le Guin update. For MegaCorps, however, they additionally open for the MegaCorp to establish Branch Offices by paying a fixed sum of Energy Credits.


Branch Offices generate income for the owning MegaCorp based on the amount of trade value present on the planet, and so are best constructed on planets with a large number of Pops. Additionally, for every 25 pops on the planet the MegaCorp can build one Corporate Building, up to a maximum of four. Corporate Buildings are typically mutually beneficial, providing the Corp with some sort of modifier (such as Naval Capacity) or production of a resource (such as Alloys), and giving the planet owner some sort of modifier (such as Amenities) or an increased number of jobs. Many Corporate Buildings also incrase trade value, which benefits both the owner of the planet and the MegaCorp. As a general rule however, the MegaCorp will always benefit more than the owner of the planet.


While Branch Offices require a Commercial Pact to be established, cancelling the Commercial Pact does not automatically close them down - once a MegaCorp is established on your planets, it's not that easy to get rid of! Instead, any empire with a planet where a MegaCorp has an 'unlicensed' (no active Commercial Pact) Branch Office will get the 'Expropriation' Casus Belli on the Corp, which if pressed successfully in war shuts down all Branch Offices on that empire's worlds, with the attacker gaining a sum of Energy Credits for each office shut down. However, one should be careful not to declare an Expropriation war they might lose - if the MegaCorp forces surrender on the attacker, the attacker is forced to become a Subsidiary of the MegaCorp (see below for details). It is not possible for a MegaCorp to establish a Branch Office on the planet of an empire they are at war or have an active truce with.


Subsidiaries
Subsidiaries are a special kind of subject available only to MegaCorps, and replacing all the other normal forms of subject (Vassal, Tributary, Protectorate) for them. Subsidiaries have some diplomatic independence, and can expand into new systems and wage war among themselves, but are required to join the MegaCorp in their wars and pay 25% of their energy credit income to their Corporate overlords. Subsidiaries can not be integrated.


In addition to their more straightforward 'regular' civics, MegaCorps also have two gameplay-changing Civics, Criminal Heritage and Gospel of the Masses:

Criminal Heritage
Criminal Heritage has no ethics requirements but cannot be added or removed once the game has begun. It turns the MegaCorp into a criminal syndicate that cannot enter into Commercial Pacts, but does not need the permission of other empires to establish Branch Offices on their planets. The income of their Branch Offices scales to the level of crime on the planet, with a higher level of Crime providing more income, and they have their own set of Corporate Buildings that generally increase crime on the planet in addition to their other effects. Criminal Corporate Buildings are not entirely negative for the owner of the planet, however, especially if that owner has opted to co-exist with criminal elements on the planet. It is also possible to counteract Criminal Syndicates by heavy use of law enforcement, as a low level of crime on the planet will both cut into the income of the Crime Syndicate and makes it possible for an event to fire where law enforcement shuts down the criminal Branch Office on the planet and blocks any further such offices from being built for a time.


Gospel of the Masses
Gospel of the Masses requires spiritualist ethics and can be freely added and removed after the start of the game. It turns the MegaCorp into a MegaChurch that gains a large boost to spiritualist ethics attraction and which gains economic benefits from spiritualist pops on their planets and branch office planets in the form of increased trade, representing tithing and a general cult of consumerism and spending. They can build a special Temple of Prosperity building on their branch office planets which boosts Spiritualist attraction, resulting in more spiritualist pops and economic benefit to both the MegaChurch and the owner of the planet, though an empire that does not wish its pops to start turning Spiritualist may want to consider carefully before allowing the MegaChurches to gain a foothold on their planets... assuming they have a choice in the matter, as Gospel of the Masses can be combined freely with the Criminal Heritage civic.


That's all for today! Next week we're going to continue talking about the MegaCorp expansion, on the topic of Ecumenopolises and new Megastructures.

Stellaris: MegaCorp introduces a revolutionary new way to conduct business on a galactic scale by seamlessly synergizing new markets and city planets with state-of-the-art citizen solutions and more marketable human capital. Alongside a host of free updates coming to Stellaris, the new MegaCorp DLC will include:

• Corporate Culture: Chief Executive Officers of a MegaCorp can conduct business on a galaxy-wide scale with a host of new civics. By building Branch Offices on planets within empires they have trade agreements with, the MegaCorp can add a portion of the planet’s Trade Value to their own network. Using the new Corporate Authority, construct an economic powerhouse and dominate galactic trade - for a brighter future.
  
  
• City World: With Ecumenopolis, players can increase the population density of core worlds to truly epic proportions, eventually creating a planet-spanning megacity.
  
  
• Caravaneer Fleets: Keep an eye out for the Caravaneers, nomadic interstellar wheelers-and-dealers who stay aloof from galactic politics, and always have a bargain up their sleeve. Expect surprises when these master traders wander through your space or when you visit their home systems.
  
  
• More Megastructures: Budget has been approved for your own glorious Matter Decompressor, Mega-Art Installation or Strategic Coordination Center to acquire new scaling capabilities for your megalopolis.
  
  
• Galactic Slave Market: Buy and sell labor on an industrial scale, set them free or keep them as livestock. The choice is yours!
  
  
• VIP Status Comes with its Perks: Keep your economy competitive in a cutthroat galaxy with additional Ascension perks.

Hello everyone and welcome to another Stellaris development diary. Today we're going to continue talking about the 2.2 'Le Guin' update, on the topic of new technologies that we have added in the update. As said before, screenshots will contain placeholder art and interfaces and non-final numbers.

New Economic Techs
As part of the economic system and planetary management changing, we also had to deal with how the various technologies governing resources and the economy would change. Previously, new economic technologies would usually unlock building upgrades, leading to a spree of upgrade-clicking across your planets when your empire got access to a new level of mining technology or similar. As one of the stated goals of the planetary rework was to remove unnecessary micromanagement, we decided to split resource technologies into two types: Raw Resource Technologies, affecting jobs that produce basic resources such as Minerals, Food and Energy and Advanced Resource Technologies, affecting jobs that produce advanced resources such as Consumer Goods and Alloys.

Typically, Raw Resource Technologies provide an instant and straightforward bonus to production, such as a bonus to mineral output from Miners, while Advanced Resource Technologies offer upgrades to buildings such as Foundries into more efficient versions that provide more of that particular type of resource production job. There are, of course, exceptions to this rule (for example, buildings like Mineral Purification Plants that improve planet-wide mineral yields) but as a general rule it holds true. Also, we are aware that some people consider straight bonus technologies to be boring, but it would both be unfeasible and entirely undesirable for all of the hundreds of technologies that you can research in Stellaris to require active engagement on the part of the player - we'd simply end up with a whole lot more of the same kind of tedious chore that was the old building upgrade system.




We've added several new technologies for Mining and Research stations that increase their efficiency, so space-based resource extraction now increases with time and technology just as planet-based resource extraction does. There's also a number of new technologies related to rare resources such as Exotic Gases to either be extracted from natural deposits, or synthetically created in the event your natural deposits are insufficient for your needs.




Specialized Planet Technologies
Of course, not all the new technologies are related to resources. One of the advantages of the new planetary management system is that it allows us to create planets that are truly different from each other, and one of the applications of this potential will be technologies that allow you to designate a highly specialized role for a planet. Currently, there are two specialized planet technologies planned for Le Guin, Penal Colonies and Resort Worlds, each of which unlocks a decision that allows you to transform a newly colonized planet into a Penal Colony or a Resort World, respectively. At time of writing, you can only have one of each of these in your empire at a time, though this may change before release.

• Penal Colonies are planets where the other colonies in your empire can dump their criminal elements. Penal Colonies have vastly increased crime, but get an increase to immigration pull and also reduce crime on all your other planets. You can only make a planet a Penal Colony while it still in the newly colonized stage (ie: before upgrading the capital at least once). The planet must also be at least size 15 to qualify for being a Penal Colony.
  
• Resort Worlds are planets that have been set aside for tourism and leisure. Resort Worlds cannot have any districts built on them, and cannot support resource-producing buildings, but have maxed-out habitability for all pops (representing climate-controlled resorts) and increase amenities on all other colonies in the empire. Resort Worlds have their own special set of capital buildings that provide some housing. You can only make a planet into a Resort World if it has no districts and no buildings (besides the capital) constructed on it. The planet must also be at least size 15 to qualify for being a Resort World. Depending on what we have time for, it's possible that the 'quality' of the resort world will impact how much amenities it will give other planets (for example, a Gaia World would be an ideal resort).

Finally, in no specific order, here's an assortment of some (but far from all) of the new and changed technologies you can expect to see in Le Guin:





That's all for today! Next week we're going to be doing a dev diary, I just can't tell you what it's going to be about just yet. I'm pretty sure you're going to find reading it to be a net gain though, so stay tuned!

Note: For a closer and more detailed look at the images for each of the Tradition options, check out the full thread at https://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/index.php?threads/1123421/

Hello everyone! Today you will be able to enjoy yet another Stellaris development diary, so that the drudgery of ordinary life gets momentarily replaced with excitement and joyous anticipation. As promised we will continue by detailing the features in the free 2.2 'Le Guin' update, and the topic will be the traditions and how they have been updated to work with our new game systems.

As per usual I of course have to reiterate that we're not yet ready to reveal anything about when 2.2 ‘Le Guin’ is coming out, and that images may contain placeholder art, interfaces and non-final numbers.

Lets get started then! Updating the traditions was of course a necessity with the reworked economy, but a secondary objective was also to make the themes of each tradition tree be more well-defined. A tradition tree should stick to a theme or a playstyle, while also making sure the bonuses are as unique and fun as possible.

Expansion
The Expansion Traditions are themed around colonizing faster, growing a large population, and generally having a large empire.


Domination
The Domination Traditions are no longer focused around vassals, but are instead focused around reducing crime, better workers and slaves, and better rulers and governors.


Prosperity
The Prosperity Traditions are themed around improving planets and making specialists better.


Harmony
The Harmony Traditions are themed around sustainability, amenities, and stability.


Supremacy
The Supremacy Traditions are themed around domination of space. You will be able to field larger fleets and upgrade more starbases, while both of them will also be stronger.


Diplomacy
The Diplomacy Traditions are themed around federations, the galactic market and trade.


Discovery
The Discovery Traditions are themed around research and space exploration.


That covers most the traditions and how they have been updated to the new system. As you saw, some of them still have some work that needs to be done. They are also still prone to change and numbers are non-final and all that.

Tune in for a short stream today where I’ll be talking some more about the traditions, and perhaps showing up some the more unique traditions for gestalt empires and purifiers.

Next week we will continue to mercilessly tease you about the upcoming update by showing some of the New Technologies, so make sure to mark it in your calendars!